NORD-5: Difference between revisions

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'''NORD-5''' was one of the world's earliest 32-bit minicomputers- beating the VAX by 6 years. The development started in [[1970]] and a machine was delivered to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in 1971{{Citation needed}} according to one source.
'''NORD-5''' was one of the world's earliest 32-bit minicomputers- beating the VAX by 6 years. The development started in [[1970]] and a machine was delivered to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in March 1972.<ref>[Eventyret Norsk Data - En bit av fremtiden. p.75. (Per Øyvind Heradstveit) J.M. Stenersens Forlag A/S, 1985 (ISBN 82-7201-040-2)]</ref>
All other sources mention 1972 for the first delivery date.


At least one system is preserved in the storage of the Norwegian Telecommunication Museum.
At least one system is preserved in the storage of the Norwegian Telecommunication Museum.


NORD-5 is a special-pupose high speed compute module designed to be attached to a general purpose NORD computer system, or to computers from other manufacturers, in order to handle heavy compute-bound tasks. The idea behind the NORD-5 is that tasks which require large amount of computations are sent out from the main system for processing while the main computer continues with other tasks. The operating system is contained in the [[NORD-1]] computer.<ref name="NORDIC">[[ND-NYTT]] No 5, September 1972, article "NORDIC - The Multicomputer Installation at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute".</ref>
NORD-5 is a special-pupose high speed compute module designed to be attached to a general purpose NORD computer system, or to computers from other manufacturers, in order to handle heavy compute-bound tasks. The idea behind the NORD-5 is that tasks which require large amount of computations are sent out from the main system for processing while the main computer continues with other tasks. The operating system is contained in the [[NORD-1]] computer.<ref name="NORDIC">[[ND-NYTT]] No 5, September 1972, article "NORDIC - The Multicomputer Installation at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute".</ref>
NORD-5 compute module
The NORD-5 was first delivered in 1972 and is a general purpose 32 bit high speed compute module designed to be attached to a general NORD computer system or to computers from other manufacturers. The NORD-5 can perform a 64 bit floating point multiplication, for example, in 900 nanoseconds and is thus very suitable for such compute bound tasks as are found in meteorology and nuclear research.<ref>[http://sintran.com/sintran/library/libsw/NORD-10-Design-Goals.pdf Norsk Data library, Software Nord-10 Design Goals (TSS-02)]</ref>


NORD-5 has its own core and executes one program at a time. Assembly and compilation are done by the main system which produces object code for NORD-5. An installation with many heavy compute-bound tasks can be equipped with several NORD-5's that may share a common core pool, where all processors can address all core. A standard NORD-5 is equipped with a shift matrix and floating point unit with a speed of 950 ns for floating point add and subtract, and also 950 ns for all kinds of shifts and bit manipulations (regardless of shift count). Floating point multiply and divide require 4 microseconds for 64 bit numbers. Optionally, a high speed multiply unit may be installed, giving a speed of 950 ns for floating point multiply (64 bits). Other special-purpose arithmetic units may be included in the NORD-5. The arithmetic units in the NORD-5 are asynchronously connected to the NORD-5 CPU, allowing a range of performances. To achieve the high computational speed, the floating and shift module and the high speed multiply module are built as a logical array and in the multiply and divide modules Schottky TTL circuits are used.<ref name="NORDIC"></ref>
NORD-5 has its own core and executes one program at a time. Assembly and compilation are done by the main system which produces object code for NORD-5. An installation with many heavy compute-bound tasks can be equipped with several NORD-5's that may share a common core pool, where all processors can address all core. A standard NORD-5 is equipped with a shift matrix and floating point unit with a speed of 950 ns for floating point add and subtract, and also 950 ns for all kinds of shifts and bit manipulations (regardless of shift count). Floating point multiply and divide require 4 microseconds for 64 bit numbers. Optionally, a high speed multiply unit may be installed, giving a speed of 950 ns for floating point multiply (64 bits). Other special-purpose arithmetic units may be included in the NORD-5. The arithmetic units in the NORD-5 are asynchronously connected to the NORD-5 CPU, allowing a range of performances. To achieve the high computational speed, the floating and shift module and the high speed multiply module are built as a logical array and in the multiply and divide modules Schottky TTL circuits are used.<ref name="NORDIC"></ref>
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* [http://www.nodaf.no/index.php/The_History_of_Norsk_Data http://www.nodaf.no/index.php/The_History_of_Norsk_Data]
* [http://www.nodaf.no/index.php/The_History_of_Norsk_Data http://www.nodaf.no/index.php/The_History_of_Norsk_Data]
* [http://folk.uio.no/toresbe/nd/telemuseet/ http://folk.uio.no/toresbe/nd/telemuseet/]
* [http://folk.uio.no/toresbe/nd/telemuseet/ http://folk.uio.no/toresbe/nd/telemuseet/]
* [Eventyret Norsk Data - En bit av fremtiden. p.75. (Per Øyvind Heradstveit) J.M. Stenersens Forlag A/S, 1985 (ISBN 82-7201-040-2)]




Latest revision as of 07:36, 22 November 2020

NORD-5 was one of the world's earliest 32-bit minicomputers- beating the VAX by 6 years. The development started in 1970 and a machine was delivered to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in March 1972.[1]

At least one system is preserved in the storage of the Norwegian Telecommunication Museum.

NORD-5 is a special-pupose high speed compute module designed to be attached to a general purpose NORD computer system, or to computers from other manufacturers, in order to handle heavy compute-bound tasks. The idea behind the NORD-5 is that tasks which require large amount of computations are sent out from the main system for processing while the main computer continues with other tasks. The operating system is contained in the NORD-1 computer.[2]

NORD-5 compute module

The NORD-5 was first delivered in 1972 and is a general purpose 32 bit high speed compute module designed to be attached to a general NORD computer system or to computers from other manufacturers. The NORD-5 can perform a 64 bit floating point multiplication, for example, in 900 nanoseconds and is thus very suitable for such compute bound tasks as are found in meteorology and nuclear research.[3]

NORD-5 has its own core and executes one program at a time. Assembly and compilation are done by the main system which produces object code for NORD-5. An installation with many heavy compute-bound tasks can be equipped with several NORD-5's that may share a common core pool, where all processors can address all core. A standard NORD-5 is equipped with a shift matrix and floating point unit with a speed of 950 ns for floating point add and subtract, and also 950 ns for all kinds of shifts and bit manipulations (regardless of shift count). Floating point multiply and divide require 4 microseconds for 64 bit numbers. Optionally, a high speed multiply unit may be installed, giving a speed of 950 ns for floating point multiply (64 bits). Other special-purpose arithmetic units may be included in the NORD-5. The arithmetic units in the NORD-5 are asynchronously connected to the NORD-5 CPU, allowing a range of performances. To achieve the high computational speed, the floating and shift module and the high speed multiply module are built as a logical array and in the multiply and divide modules Schottky TTL circuits are used.[2]

Sources

  1. ↑ [Eventyret Norsk Data - En bit av fremtiden. p.75. (Per Øyvind Heradstveit) J.M. Stenersens Forlag A/S, 1985 (ISBN 82-7201-040-2)]
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 ND-NYTT No 5, September 1972, article "NORDIC - The Multicomputer Installation at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute".
  3. ↑ Norsk Data library, Software Nord-10 Design Goals (TSS-02)


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